


I'll Teach You, I'll Love You

by Kaito_Momota



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, I think we should add some graphic violence, Learning to cry, M/M, falling in love with a friend maybe, this thing updates a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaito_Momota/pseuds/Kaito_Momota
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ricken teaches Henry to cry, but at a certain price perhaps?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! A friend and I are currently writing this for our own enjoyment.  
> Have fun reading!

It's quiet singing at first. Not too loud, but soft and sweet, almost sorrowful.

Ricken would have felt like he was interrupting a sacred time of Henry's; If it wasn't for the odd fact of the silver-haired male splashing water on his face, and in such a strange matter too.

Henry was only allowing the water near his eyes and using weaker magic to make it flow steadily down his porcelain white cheeks. But he was still smiling faintly.

He was imitating the art of crying.

But amidst all of this he was singing. The tune may be unknown, however, Ricken found it very beautiful. 

Faintly this ballad carried on, oblivious to the audience it had acquired. Still accompanied by the mimicking of tears, the whole act ran on for an amount of time Ricken could no longer identify. Had it been a matter of a couple minutes or perhaps half of an hour? 

While the younger mage had lost the time, Henry, apparently, had not; he seemed to be done with his moment of expression mockery, Ricken not having realized that the singing had at some recent point faded away. There was a stretched out silence in its stead, the Plegian's hands no longer moving the water, simply dangling there motionlessly. His head was now tilted at an angle that prevented Ricken from seeing any expression on his face, making him wonder whether this was a good moment to leave or not. 

He knew he shouldn't be watching something that Henry clearly wasn't inviting others to see, but at the same time he felt as if he wouldn't be able to leave this here without some other action or intervention. It was just such a... Strange and pitiful thing that Ricken couldn't simply let go.

It was a quick and simple decision. This was something he decided was extremely important to confront. Henry was struggling; it was an obvious fact to most that the Plegian had trouble showing emotion.

All he ever knew was to be happy, even in the strangest of times.  
Although very rarely he wore a somewhat blank expression.

Was that one of those moments?  
Those moments when all Henry wished for was to be alone? 

And if so, was it during those times when he tried so desperately to teach himself of accurate human emotions?

It was like a puzzle- no.  
Henry himself was a whole complex world of puzzles. Adding and subtracting details within each day, his vast structure of personality constantly changing and shaping itself. There could be many things Ricken would have failed to know. Even if one was very close to the bubbly persona known as Henry.

Ricken jolted out of his detailed thought when he heard the other figure begin to move once again. He should act quickly as to not startle Henry.

Cautiously he approached the slender human being.

As Ricken got closer he saw the dark mage completely freeze for the slightest of moments, undoubtedly having caught the sound of approaching footsteps. In the white haired man's haste he didn't do a very good job of covering up the movement of his arm wiping the water from his cheeks, spinning around almost immediately after the action. 

"Hey, Ricken! What're you up to?" The pale man greeted him brightly, as he would any other day. Ricken frowned slightly.  
The tediously familiar smile that was now pasted to Henry's face almost made Ricken stop in his tracks. It was clear that he wasn't the only one that found the expression a bit hollow, yet the owner of said grin never agreed to their suspicions, never changed the way he executed the fabricated smiling he did for something more real.

Henry, who was still trying to beam in his direction, didn't seem put off by his temporary lack of response; then again, he rarely acted as if anything was a problem.   
The redhead spoke up quietly, still unsure if Henry was even slightly upset with his sudden appearance.

"I... Was taking a few items to Miriel." It was his quickest response; and a small white lie as well, for it was quite obvious that there wasn't a trace of even the smallest package on his petite frame. Still, Henry didn't seem phased by it. He just continued his smile that became slightly more disturbing by each passing moment.  
It was a pleasant smile as always, yes; but at times it became very eerie. 

"But... As I was walking back to our designated tents, I..." Hesitation. Was it something that Henry wanted other people to hear? His sweet and gentle singing voice? Ricken continued on.   
"I stopped walking when I heard singing. It was you, wasn't it?"  
Of course it was the slightly taller male's voice, it would be hard to mistake it as someone else's.

There was a short moment's hesitation before Henry hummed in confirmation, a bit of a strange response for the normally chattery being. When the Plegian didn't offer any words, Ricken fidgeted slightly, never having been the greatest at bringing up problems to others. 

"It was nice," the short mage commented finally, hoping to lessen the tension that seemed to be holding Henry's tongue. "The singing, that is. It was nice."

The reply Ricken received was a slight twitch of the corners of Henry's mouth, but whether it was trying to become a genuine smile or an annoyed frown, he couldn't quite tell. 

He supposed the majority of the compliments Henry was given revolved around his knack for killing, considering most of what he heard others speak about was that, normally accompanied with a statement about how creepy or weird he was. The majority of the others still held a bit of suspicion regarding Henry's help, holding onto the knowledge of his former position with the enemy. It was unfortunate, really. The dark mage was actually a very kind person. 

"Hey, maybe I could go help deliver that to-"

"What- What was that...." Ricken interrupted quickly in an attempt to cover up Henry's request, then paused. "... Crying. What was that for?" The younger soldier visibly tensed, hoping to all the gods he could that he'd done the right thing and not just crossed some unspoken boundary.

The annoyed smile faded rapidly, though still remained faintly and hardy noticeable. Henry's hands balled into weak fists at his sides and looked down at the ground.

"So you were watching me? You weren't supposed to see that." The silver-haired male cooed in a cold tone. He did truly look hurt in some way. Ricken recoiled away from Henry slowly. Now he was aware that what he had done, what he had eavesdropped was not for him to know about.

It was something very personal to the Dark Mage; maybe even something that made him self-conscious. The petite Mage tried his best to quickly apologize.

"H-Henry, please do forgive me... I... I didn't know. I was just curious!" He held up his hands slightly in defense, not sure of what to expect from Henry. But it couldn't possibly be good at all.

But Henry remained silent, acting as if he was still processing this information. He swayed slightly on his feet before abruptly striding over to Ricken, his cape billowing dramatically behind him.

Ricken felt his breath catch in fright as Henry halted directly in front of him, the fact that he had to tilt his head slightly to look down at the smaller being with narrowed eyes chilling his blood considerably. He was beginning to feel regret poking around the back of his mind, getting onto him about minding his own business. 

"You could have knocked," Henry stated, his voice holding his recognizable happy tone somewhere behind a thick mask of threat, all directed towards Ricken. "Or you could have left me alone." A hand was placed on the boy's shoulder, tightening in a fit of anger or frustration.

Gods, why hadn't he just kept walking? He could have continued his day completely intimidation free, could have avoided this freaky run in with Henry, and went on to study his magic in peace, keeping his happy little idea that their Plegian was completely on their side, no questions asked. Maybe it would have done Ricken some good to actually have listened to the suspicions pointed towards the man in front of him. 

No, none of that could be right, Ricken knew this. This was the same Henry that he greeted on a daily basis, fought beside, even cared about his well being.

He couldn't have kept walking- not when the white haired man was so clearly troubled. Who else here was going to try and help him? Who had /ever/ tried to help him?

The pressure on his shoulder released and Ricken flinched as the hand that had been threatening him moments before came to touch his left cheek momentarily. It was hesitantly brought back to its owner, who intently and carefully looked down at it. Ricken brought his own hand up in confusion, to where the pale fingers had rested for a very short time period, only to feel the remains of a couple of disobedient tears that had escaped his eye in his absentmindedness.

The pale-skinned Plegian brought up his other hand to touch the translucent tears on his finger tips; the tears that Ricken had produced out of fear. He smiled at them sadly.

"You have the only thing I could ever wish to have...." The Dark Mage said in a melancholy tone. He continued to rub the substance gently until it was no more.

"The only thing..." Ricken repeated quietly. It was emotion- no, more emotion that Henry wanted. He wanted to be able to express himself properly.

He was never taught that; it was a sudden realization for Ricken. He understood now. It was no wonder people found it unnerving when Henry killed the enemy with a sadistic smile. 

He knew nothing else.

"Henry," The smaller Mage looked up in determination, "are you trying to teach yourself how to cry? Or even to just express emotion?"

Henry looked past his hand, which slowly fell to his side, to meet eyes with the short Ylissean. Ricken held his stare as the dark mage seemed to think things over, silently studying the younger being for what seemed like an entire afternoon to the mage. 

"Henry," Ricken broke the silence, not moving a muscle as he tried to convince him. "I can help you."

Since Henry had not denied Ricken's earlier statement, he was almost certain he'd figured it out. He'd also figured out that the likelihood of Henry learning how to express the emotion he so desired on his own would be much more difficult than having help. 

"But, emotion is a hard thing to teach to someone... Is it not?" Henry finally said. Yes, this was true; but Ricken wouldn't give up on teaching his friend emotion as much as possible.

"Of course it will be difficult, Henry, that's not going to stop me though. I will try my hardest to teach everything I know and understand about emotion. We'll take it slow and carefully so you can understand it thoroughly." At this point, the small Ylissean was grasping the Plegian's hands tightly in his own. He didn't even realize it.

Henry blinked a couple times, maybe in confusion or surprise at Ricken's determination to help him. He looked down at the hand that was now connected to his, and he suddenly gave a well known lighthearted laugh.  
"You're nice, Ricken." The Plegian stated as his usual smile returned to his face, actually causing Ricken to grin as well. 

It made him wonder, however. Was Henry really happy with the promise of help, or was this yet another mask, beyond Ricken's ability to read? He could still be upset about someone knowing of his desire to express emotions- no, he was definitely still upset. Just maybe though, he had a flicker of gratefulness somewhere as well. Ricken dearly hoped that was the case.


	2. Learning Forgivness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lesson begins and things go horribly

Henry and Ricken sat silently in the younger being's tent, not having started their little lesson yet on account of Ricken trying to piece together just exactly /how/ to start it. He'd of course planned a lot of how this was going to happen, but before it had even begun the picture in his mind had already been changed; Ricken had been ready to go and get Henry that morning, but the dark mage had spun that around by coming to Ricken first, waiting outside his tent for him to wake up for who knows how long. At least the Plegian was eager.

"So..." Ricken finally spoke, wondering whether or not this idea was the right thing to do or not. "You want to start off with the crying?" He finished awkwardly, hoping not to bring back any of the anger from the other day. In truth, the boy had no idea what he was doing. Starting off with something that clearly caused Henry grief may not be the best decision, but maybe now was as good of a time as ever? Well, he'd see how that would work out.

Henry beamed in Ricken's direction. There's the first step. Telling Henry to stop smiling.

"Hmm, Sure! I suppose that will do." The dark mage replied thoughtfully, other things obviously going through his mind. The younger being took a deep breath while looking down.

He was going to say this in harsh way even though he didn't want to. It had to be done if Henry wanted to learn.

"Then stop smiling for once."

The words came out coldly; the tone of voice Ricken used even startled himself. Was he making a mistake by doing this? Especially when magic could be involved in a violent way?

There was a visible stiffening of Henry's body as he registered the words, but the smile was still plastered to his face, seeming a bit forced at the moment. However, as Ricken trained his eyes on the ground, fearing the reaction that was to come, a small laugh was given. The mage looked up in confusion, finding Henry smiling wider than before, more genuine and amused.

"Whoa. That was kind of mean," the Plegian said brightly, the tone and statement conflicting and confusing Ricken further. 

Caught off guard by the reaction, the Ylissean fumbled for a moment before gathering himself and trying to repeat his moment of confidence that was needed to get Henry to respond in the right way.

The redhead sighed slightly, trying to figure out on what he should do next.

"Henry... I need you to remember... The saddest thing that has happened in your life..." Ricken spoke the words with hesitation. There were probably two possible ways to make Henry finally cry; Play on emotional memories, or physical abuse. The smaller Mage wanted nothing to do with the second option, but it /was/ a possible solution.

"The saddest thing that happened in my life...?" The white-haired male spoke out quietly, thinking out his response carefully. He himself wasn't very sure, but there were many things.

The dark mage sat silently, picking at a loose thread on his cloak as he tried to pick out a memory. His eyes were focused on the ground, and remained there even when Ricken spoke.

"Henry?" He asked hesitantly. "Did you come up with anything?"

There was a moment's pause before Henry shrugged his shoulders lightly, a small smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth. He'd come up with something, sure. Many somethings, actually. However, they were cast aside almost the moment they were considered. Henry never let himself dwell on those bleak things for too long- in fact, he wasn't sure he was even capable of doing so anymore. They just weren't worth it in his opinion.

"I can't think of one." Henry stated a bit too quietly to count as his regular tone.

Almost immediately after he spoke, the Plegian nearly froze up. An image of a child crouched in a terrifyingly dark forest flashed in his mind, persistent and wanting attention. Cold, frightened, alone, Henry could almost feel the scene at that moment, as if he were there with his small, pathetic self, failing in his attempts to comfort the memory.

Digging his thumb nail into his skin, Henry tried to shake the picture away. It seemed his mind was determined to prove his statement false, something he deeply did not appreciate.

"Henry...? Is everything alright?" Ricken had began to panic slightly. Even though his plan of helping the dark mage learn to cry was working, he knew that something was off. At this point Henry wasn't smiling anymore; but simply digging his nail into the porcelain white flesh of his hand.

The smaller male reached his hand out to touch the Plegian lightly on the shoulder, however that was not at all what happened.

Before Ricken knew it, Henry violently pushed the smaller mage harshly onto the floor; hands at the smaller neck gripped tightly, and the back of Ricken's head met the floor with a sickening crack.

Henry was smiling again, hands still at the Ylissean's throat. He let out a weak strewn of laughter. The white-haired male was menacing, looming over the smaller figure. It was obvious that Henry wasn't thinking properly. Something that Ricken said must have triggered him.

That was all he could process before he blacked out.

~~

The first thing that came back to him was sound; muffled voices, ones he knew well. Almost as soon as the noise registered, everything else came to his attention at once. The strong scent of various tonics and salves, the comfortable blanket and pillow that had some how come to be used by him, he knew it all. This place was obviously the medic's tent, and it was very clear to him what had put him in a condition to be here. 

The small mage tried shifting to a more comfortable position, groaning when bruises were bumped in the process. 

"... Ricken?"

The voice was quiet, worried and hesitant, and Ricken recognized it in a heartbeat. His eyes flew open in alarm, locking onto the white hair of the mage that sat beside his bed, his blood running cold. 

Henry held up his hands to show he meant no harm, his face still written with the look of worry. He wasn't smiling; not in the least. In fact, he looked tired and upset. But not upset at Ricken he was upset at himself, his own actions.

"..."

Silence. The smaller being took in all of this information at once. It was obvious that Henry was feeling something.

The dark mage reached out and lightly placed his hand upon Ricken's.

"I apologize for the actions I took towards you...." Henry's voice was weak and trembling, "... W-what I did was out of pure confusion, I didn't realize I had hurt you until I came to my proper senses a-again... I-I..." His voice faltered and caught with a small emotional gasp. The Plegian looked down at the ground with tears forming in his eyes. He finally began to cry.

Ricken watched the man in wonder, counting each of the tears that fell down his cheeks. They were /real/, and far from emotionless. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, actually.

After having watched the scene for who knows how long, the mage shook himself from his moment of awe. He pushed himself into a sitting position as carefully as he could, though he still winced at the pain that seemed to be coming from the entirety of his body. However, after recovering from the momentary increase of discomfort, Ricken looked back over to Henry, who was still staring down at the ground with tears streaming from his eyes.

The boy's hand, which was still underneath the soft skin of Henry's, slid out from underneath to allow Ricken to lean over and delicately wrap his arms around the dark mage in what was meant to be a comforting hug. 

Henry, at this point, was shaking silently. It was clear that he was truly apologetic. Ricken rubbed the Plegian's back in gentle, soothing motions.

"I forgive you Henry. What you did was out of pure instinct. I shouldn't have asked you of the saddest thing in your life; that was my fault." The smaller being said this quietly, almost cooing out the words softly. He knew full well that what happened was fully on his behalf. Although what Henry did could have been life threatening, Ricken himself was still forgiving towards the dark mage.

After a bit of hugging and trying to comfort him, Ricken eventually pulled back a little. Seeing as Henry was slumped in his little breakdown, Ricken actually had to look down at him; a strange feeling considering he was the one usually looked down upon. 

Bringing a hand to the side of the dark mage's face, he brushed his damp cheek with his fingers. In a mimic of the scene that had taken place a handful of days before, he brought the tears back to his face to examine them. After a moment Ricken gave a small smile and reached his hand out to display the teardrops to Henry, as if the man hadn't known he had been crying. 

"You got what you wanted," Ricken stated in a quiet, genuinely happy tone.

The Plegian gave out a small, melancholy smile.

"And it's all because of you Ricken. If I hadn't realized how much I truly cared about you, I wouldn't have learned anything." He stated quietly. "And... Ricken?"

"Yes?" The smaller male replied.

"I've also realized something else. I /learned/ something else." Henry cooed quietly.

"What would that be?" The mage asked.

"I learned to properly love and care for you." He said this while looking up slightly, as to lock his gaze with the redhead. Ricken smiled softly.

"I'm glad to hear that."

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued! :3


End file.
